VeganMoFo Day 2: Matilda’s Birthday Cake(s)

kara — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Last weekend was Matilda’s thirteenth birthday. Scary, I know. And not only do I now live with a teenager, I experienced my first slumber party since I was a teenager. Sure there was a lot of giggling, but hey, I got to make cake! And hummus. And pizza. And since we’re apparently now mini food fetishists, we had mini Bundt cakes. I used the French vanilla cupcake recipe from have cake, will travel but replaced the chocolate extract with almond extract. Holy crap are those things good. They were super moist but not wet and crisped up nicely on the outside. They were a hit with a room full of omnis, which is also a plus. But since plain vanilla cakes aren’t thirteenth-birthday-level festive, they were filled with lemon curd (yeah, I might be obsessed) and drizzled with a lemon glaze and garnished with fresh strawberries. The final pic with the glaze was a little, uh, gross, but the finished cakes were sure tasty.

And because every vegan loves hummus, here’s some roasted-garlic hummus, lots of parsley. Posting this pic might just be an excuse to show off the super cute Eva Zeisel dish, though.

Cook’s Illustrated Recipes

kara — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:26:00 +0000

Last weekend I got the new issue of Cook’s Illustrated in the mail. The few issues I’ve received so far haven’t much excited me; lots of tips on searing roasts and other useless things, plus a lot of stuff I already know. But this latest issue was actually pretty good. So good in fact, that I made two of the recipes soon after reading through them for the first time. The first was lemon artichoke hummus. I’ve made hummus countless times, and I’ve always loved it that way it was, which was somewhat on the chunky side. But this turned out super smooth, like restaurant hummus, only with tons more flavor. The complexities were lost when I put it on a sandwich the next day, but it was the perfect dipping hummus, especially with baked pita chips.

The next day I made spring vegetable risotto, which was also fantastic. (Unfortunately the pictures didn’t turn out as well.) It had leeks, peas, asparagus, and lemon juice and was topped with gremolata with parsley, mint, and lemon zest, which added so much flavor to the dish. This may be my favorite risotto, but I think I just love risotto in general. Something about all that stirring makes it seem very special.

Cookery & Cakery » hummus

VeganMoFo Day 2: Matilda’s Birthday Cake(s)

Cook’s Illustrated Recipes